DANGEROUS ROAD

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 82, 28 June 1927, Page 16

DANGEROUS ROAD

MAMAKU BUSH AGAIN FORMATION CRITICISED At least 10 travellers, in a car that crept through the Alamaku Bush road on the way from Rotorua to Auckland last evening, are now fully aware of the dangers of that particular stretch of 10 miles or so, which has proved disastrous to several private drivers this year, and is tackled with a great deal of care by the few service drivers who travel on it .in the winter.

The main trouble on the road Is coming down toward Tirau. On the Rotorua side the surface has been prepared with a form of rhyolite, which has been subject to volcanic action, and gives a good surface, which holds the car well. Driving a big car on the other side is a much more technical matter. The rhyolite, a species of rotten rock, is more clay-like, and a frost, mist, or rain makes the surface so greasy that to put on the brakes of a car is merely to court disaster. An immediate skid results, and quite often it is impossible to correct it.

THE SUN service driver, Mr. G. D. H. Holden, on this section, is an expert on this sort of road, but most other drivers know nothing about it, and two private drivers have gone over the bank in the past few weeks. Apart from the main complaint, that concerning the surface, the formation of the road is the greatest difficulty. Alodern motor roads have a crown of some few inches, but on a great deal of the Alamaku the road has a crown of anything up to 18 inches on a narrow road. The result is that the slightest deviation from the centre of the road sees the car slide sideways off the formation.

It is only during the period of rain or hard frost that the surface is dangerous, drying being very rapid. Those who know the road are of the opinion that, pending something being done in the way of metalling, a grader should be put on, and the crown of the road very much reduced. This might mean more water lying on the road, but the drivers regard this as a very minor matter compared with the very dangerous condition of the road in its present formation.